With board approval, Federation begins implementing three-pillar strategic plan

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

With the Jewish Federation board’s approval of a new mission statement and strategic plan on Jan. 18, the Federation has established committees to implement the plan’s three priority areas: improving collaboration, programming, and marketing and communications.

“More than a year ago, we launched our strategic planning process, chaired by Lisa Pierce and Mike Shane and facilitated by a consultant from Jewish Federations of North America,” said Federation Executive Vice President Larry Skolnick.

“During the process, we heard from hundreds of members of our community. The plan our strategic group crafted is the blueprint to more effectively respond to these needs as expressed by our Jewish community. Immediately after the board adopted the plan, we began the implementation process. Our hope is that all of the appropriate committees and structures will be in place by the beginning of April.”

Collaboration
A clear message that came out of the strategic planning process was that the Dayton area’s Jewish community prefers more coordination and less competition among local Jewish organizations.

To that end, Skolnick said, the Federation is establishing a Jewish Leadership Council comprising a volunteer and professional from each of Dayton’s synagogues, Chabad, and the Federation.

“We’ll sit down on a regular basis, probably quarterly,” Skolnick said, “to discuss issues of joint communal interest, to set a community agenda, to discuss and hopefully enact ways to collaborate on programs where it makes sense for different entities in the community.”

The first meeting of the Jewish Leadership Council, he said, will be scheduled this spring.

Programming
Linked to the collaborative process is the issue of programming. Federation’s standing programs and services committee — chaired by Judy Abromowitz, vice president of programs and services — will ensure that the Federation’s offerings are consistent with its priorities and mission.

The committee will also determine if any Federation programs and services are duplicated elsewhere in the Jewish community.

“In some cases, it might make more sense for us to help fund what someone else is doing rather than run the same initiative ourself,” Skolnick said.

A new initiative to encourage innovative Jewish programming and services across the community is the Federation’s grants committee, chaired by Cadi Polk and Dan Sweeny, which held its first meeting in March.

“The idea here,” Skolnick said, “is that any Jewish organization in the Dayton area or any individual or individuals from the Jewish community who has an idea for a new way of serving the community could take up their initiative.”

This year, the grants committee will award $30,000 to fund new, creative Jewish outreach projects. The Federation plans to open requests for grant proposals this summer with grants to be awarded later in 2012.

Priority will be given to programming that aims to reach out and engage young adults (singles and couples), and young families. Projects that are collaborative in nature among more than one institution or multiple people will also receive priority for grants.

Marketing and communications
The strategic planning committee’s third major recommendation was to improve the Federation’s marketing and communications.

“The Federation’s message is a complex one, and effectively communicating all that it does is an ongoing challenge,” said JFNA Consultant Judy Horowitz, who facilitated the strategic planning process in 2011. “It’s made even more complicated by the proliferation of technology that impacts how people get information.”

Skolnick anticipated the work of the Federation’s new marketing and communications committee will get underway in April, including the hiring of a part-time social media specialist in addition to Federation’s current marketing director.

“Our goal here is to enhance the community’s awareness, understanding, and engagement regarding all that we do,” Skolnick said.